Translation is a tool which, through the study of several different translators, reveals not just the author, but the translator as well.

Steiner: “Every act of comprehension is an act of translation.”

Sonme writers work in translation with a native speaker or a scholar, without knowing the language as well– they have a literal translation available to them, which they then use to uncover their own translation. Most Akhmatova translation are close to the very literal.

Guiding principals for translators:
– Poets with little knowledge of a language but a gift for poetry in their own language can do excellent translations.
– Poets translating from their own language into a second language often fail.
– Translations without a love for and perhaps some talent for poetry tend to fall flat.

A curious game of intent.

A close reading informs us as poets–we should follow the words in the rough translation to discover intent…

There’s a woman here who looks like a skeleton.

With a wig. But that’s her real hair.